The Relative Age Effect in Professional Futsal Players

The objective of this study was to verify the occurrence and effect size of relative age effect in professional futsal players, by observing how its presence and impact change according to the season, team level and player position. The sample was composed of 1873 professional futsal players who played in the First Division of the Spanish National Futsal League between seasons 2006-2007 and 2014-2015. The players’ birthdates were divided into quarters (Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4). A relative age effect reversal was observed in the professional futsal players for the nine analyzed seasons. A relative age reversal effect was observed in high and medium level teams. Finally, a relative age effect reversal was also found for the goalkeeper and pivot positions. The results could suggest that players that initially experienced maturity disadvantages in major sports, can have a second chance to emerge in professional minor sports (i.e. futsal vs. soccer). However, the underlying mechanisms why a reversal occurs are still unclear, and more studies focusing on the mediators of the effect are needed.

The architecture of network collective intelligence: correlations between social network structure, spatial layout and prestige outcomes in an office

A social network represents interactions and knowledge that transcend the intelligence of any of its individual members. In this study, I examine the correlations between this network collective intelligence, spatial layout, and prestige or status outcomes at the individual and team levels in an organization. I propose that spatially influenced social cognition shapes which individuals become members of prestigious teams in organizations, and the prestige perception of teams by others in the organization. Prestige is a pathway to social rank, influence and upward mobility for individuals in organizations. For groups, perceived prestige of work teams is related to how team members identify with the group and with their collaborative behaviours. Prestige enhances a team's survivability and its access to resources. At the individual level, I ran two-stage Heckman sample selection models to examine the correlation between social network position and the number of prestigious projects a person is a member of, contingent on the association between physical space and social ties and networks. At the team level, I used linear regressions to examine the relationship among network structure, spatial proximity and the perceived prestige or innovativeness of a project team. In line with my hypotheses, for individuals there is a significant correlation between physical space and social networks, and contingent on that, between social network positions and the number of prestigious projects that a person is a member of. Also in accordance with my hypotheses, for teams there is a significant correlation between network structure and spatial proximity, and perceived prestige. While cross-sectional, the study findings illustrate the importance of considering the spatial domain in examinations of how network collective intelligence is related to organizational outcomes at the individual and team levels.This article is part of the theme issue 'Interdisciplinary approaches for uncovering the impacts of architecture on collective behaviour'.

Situational and Dispositional Factors that Predict Motivation: a Multilevel Study

This study aimed to test a multilevel mediation model which examined the relationship between the perceived motivational climate created by coaches at team level and motivational regulations towards sport at individual level, as mediated by individual goal orientations. 211 university athletes from 20 teams training in different types of sport completed a battery of instruments that measured the variables included in the model. The statistics significance level was .05. Results of the multilevel mediation model revealed that the task-involving climate at team level positively predicted individual task orientation (γ01 = .77, p .05). The results are in line with previous research that have focused in the study of motivational climate at individual level, but the present study make a novel contribution by providing the perspective of a multilevel mediation model and thereby clarifying the phenomenon at team level.